Preincubation with antipsychotic drugs protects against in vitro phencyclidine-mediated spontaneous neuronal network suppression.
European journal of pharmacology September 5, 2025 Timo Jendrik Faustmann, Stephan Theiss, Philipp Görtz et al. 1 citation
Phencyclidine (PCP), a drug that blocks NMDA receptors, suppresses spontaneous electrical activity in networks of mouse brain cells grown on microelectrode arrays, reducing spike and burst rates. Pre-treating the networks with antipsychotic drugs—clozapine, aripiprazole, or haloperidol—shifted the PCP dose-response curve to the right, indicating protection. Clozapine and aripiprazole provided 20- to 30-fold greater protective potency than haloperidol's 6-fold shift. The findings suggest this in vitro setup can model schizophrenia-related network disruption and test potential treatments.